Memory Lane
by Jessica Capasso
Summary: Set after Prince Charmed. After Piper kicks Chris out the sisters find him crying in the park. They decide to give him another chance but force him to tell them the truth. A spell sends them into Chris' memory and they see everything he wanted to hide.
1. Chapter 1

Memory Lane

Chapter 1

"Get out. I never want to see you again" Piper told Chris. He had just lost their trust for the last time. How could he do something like this. And then try to tell them that Wyatt would turn evil. That's gotta be the cruelest lie anyone's ever told.

No one noticed the pained look on Chris' face as he orbed away. No one except for Paige that is. She didn't want to believe that Wyatt turned evil. Couldn't believe it, but Chris must have an explanation. If his plans were foiled he would look annoyed, maybe frustrated, but not hurt and betrayed. She would have to go talk to him. Find out what is going on here. She had never trusted him totally, but she knew that he wouldn't hurt them at least.

Paige made an excuse and went to her room before she orbed away. She usually couldn't sense Chris anywhere, but apparently whatever shield he usually keeps up is down now for some reason. She was able to find him easily this time and orbed in behind him. What she saw made her stop in her tracks. Chris was kneeling on the cold ground in the rain. He had his arms wrapped around his stomach like he was trying to keep himself in one piece and he was muttering "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." over and over. There were tears streaming down his face and he looked like hell. She had never seen their slightly neurotic, stoic whitelighter show any emotion at all especially not something like this. She had to show her sisters and decide what to do from here.

She orbed back to the manor and grabbed her sisters after casting a silence bubble around them. She didn't want Chris to know they were there. This was probably an invasion of privacy, but they needed to know. As soon as they arrived and saw Chris Piper gasped and covered her hand over her mouth and Phoebe screamed and doubled over shaking with sobs before she passed out. Paige grabbed her sisters and orbed them back to the manor. They sat by Phoebe's side waiting for her to wake up for almost an hour.

When she finally woke up she began to cry again. "What's wrong?" Piper asked her.

"I just can't believe everything he was feeling. It's no wonder he keeps us shielded. It completely overloaded me."

"What was he feeling?"

"Intense pain. The kind I couldn't even imagine. Betrayal. Paralyzing fear. Self-loathing. Strong love for all of us including Wyatt. Bitterness towards Leo."

"Wow. That's a lot of different emotions." Piper said thoughtfully.

"It wasn't just the amount of emotions. It was the strength of them too. It made everything everyone else feels seem like a shadow."

"Well I don't know about you guys, but the love for us is enough to make me want to find some way to fix things with him." Paige said determined to force her sisters if she had to.

"I agree, but how will we be able to trust him." Piper asked.

"I say we summon him, lock him in, and not allow anyone to leave until we get things figured out. We can use crystals and an anti-orbing spell." Typical Phoebe plan, but it could work.

"We should get Leo down here. It involves Wyatt so he deserves to be involved."

When Leo arrived they set the crystals up to keep anyone from leaving then cast the anti-orb spell. Finally they were ready to summon Chris. They decided to just call for him first to see if he came. He did.

When he arrived he found them all waiting for him. He looked around confused. "What is this? Are you going to try to vanquish me or something?"

"Not at all Chris. We just want some answers and no one is leaving here until we get them." Piper told him.

"You know I can't give you the answers you want. Not without future consequences."

"Well see that's not going to work. Not anymore. First I need you to drop your shields so that Phoebe can sense if you are lying to us."

"I can't do that. My emotions would overwhelm her. Possibly even kill her."

"You can't expect us to believe that. Maybe if you lost control, but you're in control now and we need to be sure before we can ever trust you again. If you can handle them why wouldn't I be able to." Phoebe told him. She remembered all too well how overwhelming his emotions were earlier, but that was when he was out of control. He couldn't possibly feel anything that strong all the time. She could handle it.

"Trust me you wouldn't be able to. I have had my whole life to build up these emotions. They are a part of me. Even with everything you all have been through your lives have been paradise compared to mine. No one who hadn't lived through it could handle it."

"I find it hard to believe that your life was ever that bad." Piper scoffed knowing what all she and her sisters had been through and couldn't really imagine much worse.

"Oh you don't think so? Well how about I give you a little taste." Chris sneered really getting pissed now. "What you see here isn't how I really look. It's how I would look if things hadn't happened, but it's just a glamour. A clever illusion." Chris began to strip off his shirt and then waved his hand over his body. Everyone in the room gasped. Phoebe had to fight herself not to vomit. Chris' face was covered in burn scars and one side looked like it had been almost melted off. His entire body was covered with scars that looked like they came from everything from whips, chains, knives, energy balls, and other things they couldn't even identify. His right leg was twisted at an odd angle and looked like it had been broken and never healed properly. He was missing three fingers on his right hand and two on his left. His arms were even worse than his face.

Piper was the first to regain her powers of speech. "Who did this to you?"

Chris looked down like he was ashamed. He couldn't look at them and see the disgust on their faces. The only people who have seen his true self looked at him like that. He said quietly and almost in a whisper, "Wyatt"

"What? No. He couldn't. I don't...I just...I can't..." She trailed off. She couldn't find the words.

"How come you were never healed?"

"No one from the resistance was ever able to get healed. He controlled it all after he took over. Only those he approved could be healed."

Leo still didn't know whether to believe Chris or not about Wyatt, but he did deserve to be healed. "I can heal you now if you'd like."

"No." Chris said and ran his hand back over his body replacing the glamour. "These scars are my penance and my reminder of what is at stake here. If I succeed here then you can heal most of them, but if I fail they won't matter much anyway."

"Penance for what?" Paige asked

"For not seeing it sooner. What he was becoming. For failing to save so many of his victims. For caring about him too much to kill him. Take your pick."

"Why would you be the one to kill him? Why were you the one to come back? Why do you care so much?"

"Most of that I can't answer, but I have to be the one because I'm the only being in the world strong enough to do it."

"You can't keep avoiding our questions and expect us to trust you anymore. For all we know you came back to kill him as a baby before he gets too strong." Piper accused. She regreted it a moment later though when she saw tears come to his eyes.

"That's what most of my people wanted me to do, but I can't. I won't. I don't care what he's going to become I could never kill a baby. Especially not him. I'm here to save him. If I fail then I have no choice but to go back and finally deal with the final battle between us, but now he hasn't even done anything wrong."

Piper remembered what Phoebe said about him feeling a strong love for Wyatt and decided to believe him on that point. "That still doesn't change the fact that we need answers. And proof. Without that we will always doubt you."

"What more can I do to prove it?"

"We can cast a spell to see your memories." Paige suggested.

"No. Absolutely not. Never." Chris was adamant.

"Why? It would allow us to trust you and we could word the spell so that we only see the memories of Wyatt."

"No way. Hearing it and seeing it are two completely different things. It would destroy you all to see that and I won't let you do it. I'm not exactly fond of reliving all of that myself either."

"We could do it without your permission you know?" Piper said starting to get frustrated at the stalemate they kept reaching.

Chris started to get a bad feeling about this and tried to orb out. He was blocked. "No. Please. I'm begging you. Don't do this."

The girls looked at each other and chanted the spell. When they entered his memory they were startled to see Wyatt as a young child no more than eight. Chris had to think fast. He couldn't reverse the spell because he wasn't the one to cast it, but if these memories went where he thought they were going to go then he would never be able to keep his shield up with the emotional onslaught. Phoebe would be in big trouble if that happened. There was only one thing he could think of to do.

Powers of the witches rise

Course unseen across the skies

Come to me I call you near

Come to me and settle here

Phoebe turned around enraged and began to yell at him. "You took my powers! How dare you!"

"I told you what could happen if my emotions get out of control and you brought us here and unless you get us out of here they will get out of control and I won't be able to keep up my shield. I'll give them back when we're done. I promise." Chris started off yelling, but calmed down halfway through. He couldn't believe they would do this to him.

Phoebe deflated. "Fine but if you don't we will vanquish you."

"You can't vanquish me actually, but you could hurt me pretty badly."

"Why can't we vanquish you. We have the power of three." Paige asked curiously.

Chris refused to answer so they turned their attention to the memories.

_Wyatt and a young Chris were playing with toys when Wyatt took the toy Chris was playing with. 'Shit' Chris thought. This would be the first one. Now his secret is definitely out. They will know exactly who he is. When Chris started to cry Piper came in. "Wyatt give your brother back his toy."_

Everyone's heads snapped up and looked at Chris who was looking resolutely at the floor. "Brother?" Piper asked breathlessly. "You're my son?"

Chris wouldn't look up but only nodded. Piper walked over to him slowly and lifted his chin with her hand to force him to look at her. When he finally met her eyes she apparently saw what she was looking for and embraced him. A few tears fell from his eyes as he hugged her back. "That's why you can't kill him. You love him. He's your brother and you can't hurt family."

Chris nodded again. Leo went over to him but Chris shied away. "I'm your father right? You're half white lighter so I have to be."

"Yeah you are."

"Then why do you hate me so much."

"Just watch. You forced this little trip down memory lane on me so now you get to see everything. Unless of course you want to get us out of here before things get even harder."

"No. I have to see. More than ever now I have to see. Maybe we will be able to get some clues as to what happened to Wyatt even." Piper said.

"You won't. Whatever happened did so before I was born and it was a very gradual thing. There are no clues to find."

"Well we have to try."

Chris nodded. Hopefully they would give up before it got too bad. He could only hope. The next memory was one with Leo.

_Chris and Wyatt were playing in their room when Wyatt decided he wanted the toy that Chris was playing with. "Chris you better give that toy to your brother right now." Leo said sternly. _

_Chris sighed but handed it over and found another one. The pattern repeated itself for a while until Piper came home and Leo left. Then she made Wyatt share. _

Apparently the spell only showed memories that were important to Chris because it was skipping a lot. The next memory took place when Wyatt was twelve and Chris was ten.

_The boys were downstairs watching television when a demon shimmered into the room and attacked. Both boys began throwing energy balls at the demon but found themselves separated. The demon went to throw a fireball at Chris and Wyatt ran across the room and jumped in front of his little brother not having enough time to throw up his shield. Chris was thrown backwards into the banister as a little girl about five ran downstairs, screamed, and blew up the demon."Dad" Wyatt called. His shoulder was burned pretty badly and his leg looked broken. _

_Chris ran to the girl. "Are you okay Melly?"_

_While Chris was fussing over Melly, Leo orbed down and seeing the scene healed Wyatt and grabbed him up in his arms. "Are you okay? What happened?" he asked._

"_A demon attacked. I'm fine." Leo gushed over Wyatt for a few more moments then orbed out. Wyatt ran to Chris as soon as Leo left and began to heal his brother who had a few cuts and a broken arm. "I'm sorry."_

"_For what? You saved my life. Thanks for not making a big deal about Dad like last time. I don't want the fuss."_

"_Well last time you almost died and if I hadn't made a big deal out of it neither of us would have gotten to you in time. I know how you hate it, but I still think we should tell Mom again." Wyatt argued._

"_No. We can't. You know what happened last time. I don't want to do that again."_

Leo was standing there in shock watching the scene unfold. How could he do that to his son? Just ignore him when he was hurt like that. Piper looked like she felt the same way. She turned to Chris. "What happened when you told me?" she asked her younger son.

"You called Dad down and got into a big fight. You thought I was in bed but I got up for a glass of water and heard you. You told him that we were both his sons and he had to treat us equally and then he yelled back that we weren't equal. Wyatt was the twice-blessed. I was nothing. That's when I realized how little I mattered to Dad." Chris looked at his father then. "You were wrong though Dad." He sneered. "Wyatt may be the twice blessed and have a prophecy about him, but it turns out I'm the thrice blessed and there are three prophecies about me. None of them just reached you so you never knew."

"Thrice?" Phoebe asked

"Witch, Whitelighter, and Elder." Chris answered nonchalantly.

"I'm so sorry son. I don't know how I could have ever treated you that way. I can promise you now that I won't ever do that this time around." Leo told him.

Chris sneered at him again. "Don't make promises you can't keep. That's not even the worst thing you ever did."

Leo wisely shut up. It would take a lot more than an apology to fix things with his son, but he would. No matter what he had to do. They had argued through a few more memories. Until Chris saw one with he and his mother sitting in the attic going over the book. Chris was fourteen now. "Oh god. Not this one. We have to get out of here. Now. Please." No one answered. "Please." Chris started to cry. "At least skip this one. I can't do this again."

"We can't leave Chris. We worded the spell to where we couldn't leave until we found what we were looking for. You don't have to watch though." Piper soothed him.

_Piper and Chris were going through the book trying to find a spell to figure out what went wrong with Wyatt when he orbed in. "There's nothing wrong with me mom. I just decided that I was sick of your kind of life. The whole good and evil drama is so exhausting. I plan to unite everyone under one rule. Mine. I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly, but I can take care of that." Wyatt formed an energy ball and threw it at Piper. She dodged it. Chris started screaming at his brother to stop, but Wyatt kept throwing energy balls at his mother. Chris eventually started throwing them back, but they were weak. It was obvious he didn't want to hurt Wyatt but he had to protect his mom. Wyatt was shooting to kill. She wasn't even firing back. "I know you can't hurt me. You could never bring yourself to no matter what I do, but you could make things difficult for me so you're not leaving me any choice." After a few more energy balls one finally hit and Piper flew back into the cabinet at the same time as Chris' hit Wyatt. Wyatt orbed out and Chris ran to his mother in tears. "Dad!" he cried. "Dad please! We need you!" Chris held tightly to his mother and kept screaming for Leo through his sobs. _

The present day Chris was collapsed in the corner sobbing and shaking and muttering. "You never came when I called. Not once. I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry Mom."

Piper ran to him and wrapped him in her arms. "Shh it's okay. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I won't let that happen this time around. If I have to I'll even fight back. I won't let you lose me again. Shhh."

Chris held onto his mother even tighter. "I love you mom. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I could have fought harder. I could have went for help."

"It's not your fault Chris. It's okay. I love you too baby."

Piper was having trouble processing the fact that her eldest son killed her, but her second son needed her more at the moment. She could worry about the rest later. The memory continued.

_Paige walked in to see Chris hugging his dead mother and sobbing. "Oh my god what happened?"_

"_Wyatt. We learned he was the one organizing the underworld. He killed her."_

"_No! I don't believe it! How could he?!"_

"_We need to get everyone here where it's safer I think." Chris offered since it was obvious Paige was still in shock. _

_She nodded dumbly and when she didn't move Chris went to the phone and called Phoebe and Henry and told them to get everyone there. They arrived quickly and Phoebe and Paige decided to go after Wyatt, capture him, and find some way to turn him back. Chris begged them to be careful and they left. Chris went to deal with the six children in the living room._

"Who are all those children?" Phoebe asked desperately hoping some of them were hers.

He pointed at each of the children in turn. There was no point keeping secrets anymore and he really wasn't in any shape to worry about it either. "That's Melinda. She's my little sister. Those three are Prudence, Penelope, and Patricia those are your girls Aunt Phoebe. The two over there are Paige's twins Sarah and Henry." They all looked to their children.

_About that time two bodies appeared in orbs on the couch. It was Paige and Phoebe. It was a message from Wyatt. Chris wanted to go after him, but someone had to take care of the children. He was the oldest and the others ranged from eleven to six. He gathered the children up into a circle and they all held hands and he orbed them to a dark underground place. "Okay we are all going to stay here. We have to rely on each other now and most importantly we have to keep safe. We are the guardians of the Halliwell line now. No one leaves this place without me, but I'll need all of your help to cast the protective spells." The children all lined up, held hands, and began chanting the protective spells of their ancestors. What they failed to realize was that by using their ancestral spells Wyatt could get through the enchantments as well. _

_They realized it all right when he orbed in. "Just give me the kids Chris. You're too young to take care of them. No one needs to be hurt here."_

"_Not a chance" Chris said as he jumped in front of the children. Wyatt began shooting low power energy balls. He didn't want to hurt the kids, just turn them. Chris yelled for them all to hold hands and orbed them out, but Patricia didn't grab onto anyone. When they arrived at the next hiding place Chris realized he was missing a kid and immediately orbed back but Wyatt and six year old Patricia were already gone. Chris orbed back to the children. They were in what looked like an abandoned house and Chris told them all to find a room and go to bed while he set to work. He got out a pad and pencil and began writing his own protective spells and casting them as he finished. He made sure to word it so that Wyatt couldn't get in this time. He worked well into the night and fell asleep exhausted on the couch downstairs. _

Chris was still curled up with Piper in the corner. "I'm so sorry baby. I'm so sorry we cast this spell. I'm so sorry you have to go through all this again."

"I go through it all again every night in my nightmares anyway. At least now I have you here."

"Where did you go with all the kids?"

"We stayed there. In fact we are still there. It's the headquarters of the resistance now. Those spells I put on it that night were improved and added to over the years and headquarters is now the most secure place on the planet with the exception of Wyatt's place."

"So you raised six children and ran the resistance all at fourteen?" Piper asked obviously impressed.

"Well I didn't really get the resistance running until I was sixteen, but yeah"

"Who's running things with you gone?" Paige asked.

"Melly. She's the only other one that has been up against Wyatt like I have."

"Like you have? You mean..." Piper trailed off gesturing to his body and Chris knew what she meant.

"She doesn't look quite as bad as me, but she has more emotional scars from his encounters."

"I don't think I want to know what that means, not now anyway. I have too much else to process at the moment. How old is she anyway? She can't be old enough to run the resistance."

"She's 17. She's older than I was when I started it and has been fighting for the cause since she was twelve. Wyatt wants her by his side more than anyone else except for me."

"What happened to Patricia?"

"She is now his right hand. She was too young not to be turned. I looked for her for years after that, but was never able to get her back."

"Did you lose any of the other children?"

"Not that way no. Henry works for Wyatt, but as a spy for me. Penelope and Sarah died in the attacks. The rest still work in the resistance."

By this time all of the adults had tears in their eyes. "Wait a minute." Leo said. "Didn't I help you with the children at all?"

"You never came when I called. I didn't see you again until a few years later." About that time the memory in question came up.

"_How could you let this happen Chris. You were supposed to protect your brother. You let him go evil and didn't even try to save him. You're worthless." Leo yelled at Chris._

_Chris started crying. "I had to take care of the rest of them. I couldn't risk getting killed and leaving them for him to turn evil too."_

"_You know he's the important one. You have to find a way to save him. No matter the cost." Leo orbed out._

Chris looked away from Leo who was completely pissed at himself for treating his family that way. Maybe he didn't deserve to be a father. "That's why you started the resistance?" Piper asked gently.

"Not exactly. It wasn't long after this that Wyatt went after the elders and slaughtered them all and took control of all of the whitelighters. Many of them were killed too rather than joining him, but whitelighters and elders aren't really known for their fighting skills. That's when I knew I had to do something. He was my brother. My responsibility. My problem. I began forming the resistance."

The next memory was the one where he got his scars.

_Wyatt walked into the room where two demons were holding Chris in place. "Well well. The wayward brother finally at my feet. Are you ready to join me yet?"_

"_Never. I will never turn evil. You need to turn back to good. Work with me to fix the world. Please Wy"_

_Wyatt just laughed. "Put him on the wall." He told the demons. After he was shackled onto the wall Wyatt called for a healer. "Don't let him die. Don't heal him more than you have to to keep him alive." he told her. _

_Chris cringed. He knew this wasn't going to be good. "You can torture me all you want Wyatt. I still won't join you."_

"_We'll see. I've invented many new ways of pain that I have been dying to try out on someone strong enough. But lets start with the basics shall we?"_

_Wyatt pulled out a knife and walked over to his little brother. He began making shallow cuts all over Chris' body. Chris just glared at him defiantly. Wyatt smirked and pulled out a whip. "Just so you know, this whip is coated with salt." Chris set his jaw knowing that this was going to be painful as Wyatt began whipping him. Still Chris refused to scream. "Well well little brother. Seems like you are stronger than I thought."_

"_There is nothing you could do to me here that is worse than what you have already done to me."_

_Wyatt lauged again. "I suppose I could go ahead and move on to my grand finale. I can get to the rest later." Wyatt pulled out a potion and threw it at Chris' feet. Flames leapt up around Chris and began burning his flesh. It was obvious that Chris was struggling to not scream. Just as his skin began to melt off of his body Wyatt threw another potion and the flames went away. Wyatt waved the healer over to his brother. "Will he live?"_

"_Not through that potion again. Otherwise he'll live."_

"_Okay then. We will save the rest of that potion for later." Wyatt then began throwing energy balls at Chris. With each one that hit Chris flinched. He whimpered a few times when the energy balls hit his still burned flesh. _

Everyone watching the memory with Chris had tears streaming down their faces. "That was the day I lost what little was left of my innocence" Piper had a death grip on her son and Phoebe and Paige were trying to keep Leo from losing it. Leo broke away from the girls and ran to Chris ripping him from his mothers arms. Leo held on to him and sobbed into his shoulder. Chris tensed up and didn't return the embrace. "Chris I don't care what I have to do. I will fix things between us. I swear. Please just give me a chance to."

Chris inwardly swore. He had to ask during such an emotional time. Chris would give him anything right now. He tentatively wrapped his arms around his father for the first time he could remember and agreed.

"_Don't you see Chris. It is your destiny to join me. The prophecies say so."_

"_Bullshit" Chris croaked. _

_Wyatt punched him in the face and there was a crack as Chris' nose broke. "Not nice baby brother. I guess you aren't getting the lesson yet." Wyatt picked up his feet and began kicking his brother breaking one of his legs and then an arm in turn. Then he took out the chains and started swinging them at Chris. Chris was barely concious when suddenly everything in the room froze except for Chris. _

"What's that? I thought you couldn't freeze witches?" Paige asked curiously.

"They aren't frozen. Melly has the ability to stop time completely. She really shouldn't though. It takes a lot out of her. After all this she was in bed for two weeks and it took almost a year for her to get back to normal."

"How can she do that? I've never heard of that power." Leo asked

"She is part of a being that you haven't encountered yet so I can't tell you much more except that all of those beings have the ability to stop time at will except that their powers are collective and she is the last one left so she doesn't have the others to draw power from."

"So I'm not her father?"

"You are. It's a long story and that's one I really really can't tell you or she could cease to exist." They luckily accepted that.

_A girl walked in and took him down from the wall. "Can you walk Chris?"_

"_Melly. What are you doing here?"_

"_Getting you out. Now lets go. I can't hold it much longer."_

"_Fine but we will discuss this later." He leaned heavily on his little sister as she led him out. _

"_Can you orb?" She asked as they got outside. _

"_I think so." They disappeared in the swirling orbs and reappeared in headquarters. Melly sat Chris down on the couch and screamed for Sarah. "You know Sarah can't heal and if you ask her to try and she can't she'll feel guilty. I'll be okay. Wyatt's healer said that I would live so don't worry. Just get me a pain potion, set the bones, and make me up an alcohol bath."_

_After all that was done Chris turned to Melly. "Now would you care to explain to me just what the hell you were thinking? You know it's been too soon since you stopped time last time. You could have died!"_

"_How many times have you said that death is always a risk? I had someone to take over getting you out if the strain was too much for me. Besides we had to get you back. We found the prophecies you had us looking for. There are three of them. You are our only hope. If you die we all do."_

"_I don't care. I don't want you risking something like that again. Do you hear me? Now go get some rest. You must be beat."_

"_Don't you want to know about the prophecies?"_

"_I'll ask someone else. Go to bed." Melly sulked but stomped off and did as she was told. "Oh and Melly?" She turned to look at him. "Thanks for saving my life." She smiled and continued on to bed._

By this time Piper had regained control of herself. "I'm so proud of you Chris. You've been through so much and still hold fast to your values and your family. I couldn't ask for a better son."

"Thank you mom. That means so much to me."

_Once she was gone Chris stood up and grabbed a crutch that Mel brought him and began to hobble through the house in search of someone. He found a crowd in the kitchen. "Chris!" They called. "We knew she would get you back. Shouldn't you be resting?" Prue asked him._

"_There's work to do. Who can update me on what has happened since I was captured last week?"_

"_Sarah's gone. She went missing this morning and we tried everything to find her. Scrying, summoning, tracking her with all of our powers, but she couldn't be found. We checked the book and she is listed as dead." _

_Chris hung his head and took a deep breath. "Has Henry been notified?"_

"_He's too deep in. We can't contact him. He has to contact us."_

"_When he contacts us find me. I should be the one to tell him. Anything else important?"_

"_There was an attack last night. We have the wounded upstairs."_

"_I'll go see them when we are done here."_

"_No you need to go rest!" Prue told him angrily._

"Just like her namesake" Phoebe chuckled.

"_No I need to keep the morale up as much as I can. Showing them that I'm back and alive will give them hope again. That is more important. I'll rest afterward. I promise, Prue." Chris tried to placate her, but she just glared at him. "Anything else?"_

"_Just the prophecies. I assume Mel told you about them."_

"_Just that they were found. What do they say?"_

"_The first one says 'The twice blessed and thrice blessed united will change the world, but divided will destroy it' the second says 'the thrice blessed, lost in time, will right the wrongs' the final one says 'the twice blessed and the thrice blessed are unmatched but for each other'"_

"_Okay the first one is pretty self explanatory. I don't like this thought that we will destroy the world if we work against each other. I refuse to join him and save the world just so that we can make it worse. The last one is pretty easy too. Only I can kill him and vice versa. It's the second one that has me confused. Lost in time? Right the wrongs? I don't understand. Get the researchers on that one. Anything else you can find about the other two is great, but the second should be the priority." A few people left the room apparently to carry out their orders and Chris headed upstairs to their makeshift infirmary. After a short greeting to those that were awake he went to his own room and fell asleep. _

"I take it you figured out what the second one meant." Paige said.

"Yeah. It took another two years and countless deaths, but I finally figured it out. Well mostly. There were two things that it could have meant. Either I come back and kill him or I come back and save him. I chose to save him for obvious reasons. It wasn't exactly easy to do either. The only way to get enough power for the spell was to complete it in proximity to the nexus and since Wyatt was using the manor it involved getting in and completing the ritual unseen. I narrowly escaped him to make it here, hence the reason I didn't make it in time to keep Aunt Paige from being turned to stone."

Then they were thrown from Chris' mind back into the attic. Chris collapsed on the couch exhausted from all the emotion. "Looks like we have a lot to talk about" Piper said.

"Can we do it tomorrow? I'm beat and I need time to recover from all this."

"I think we all need time to process. Can I at least have my powers back?"

"How are we going to get you your powers back. If we cast the spell to call a witch's power you'll take Chris' powers too." Paige asked starting to get worried.

"Don't worry. I wrote a spell for that reason."

Powers of the witches rise

Course unseen across the skies

Return to where you truly belong

And for heaven's sake don't go wrong

Everyone laughed at that. Chris shrugged and looked a little sheepish. "When I was a kid I had problems with my spells messing up. I wrote that when I was nine and took Melly's powers."

"I grounded you for that right?" Piper raised her eyebrow at him.

Chris laughed. "Oh yeah. Big time." Chris yawned. Well I'm gonna head back to P3, assuming it's okay if I still stay there?"

"No it's not okay." Piper said. "You will stay here. This was your home and you are my son. You belong here with us."

"Okay do you want me to cast the spell we wrote in the future to expand the house so we have more room?"

"You can do that? That is so cool!" Paige exclaimed as Piper nodded. Chris chanted the spell and added another room to the house. Then he grabbed one of the old matresses from the attic and went to his new room and passed out.

As soon as he was gone Piper turned to Leo. "If you ever treat our children like that I will find a way to kill you myself."

"If I ever treat my children like that I will help you." Leo said sadly. "I don't know how I'm going to fix things with him." He sighed.

"Just be there. Show him that you will be. Show him you care. He doesn't hate you. He is bitter about a lot of things, feels abandoned and betrayed, but you saw how important family is to him. If he can't bring himself to hate Wyatt after everything he's done I don't think he is capable of hating you. It won't be easy, but it can be done." Phoebe assured him.

"We should all get some rest. This has been a very emotional day." Piper said mind still reeling from everything she had seen.

* * *

Next time: Some hard discussions and maybe even some surprise visitors.


	2. Chapter 2

Memory Lane

Chapter 2

Piper woke up hearing Chris' voice on the baby monitor. "I will save you Wyatt. I swear. I won't fail you again. I don't know if I can bring myself to hurt you if I fail. No matter what that means for the world." Wyatt cooed. Piper could hear the rocking chair squeaking and she knew that Chris was rocking Wyatt. "I love you Wy. So much. You were always there for me growing up. You healed me when I was hurt. You comforted me when Dad forgot about me. You took care of me when everyone else was too busy. You protected me always. Now it's my turn to take care of you and I promise I'll do a good job." Piper got tears in her eyes. Hearing the love her sons had for each other and knowing everything Chris was willing to do to save his brother. It really was heartwarming as much as it was disturbing what their relationship came to. What her oldest son came to. She had stayed up most of the night thinking and then when she finally did fall asleep she kept having nightmares about what she'd seen in Chris' memories.

She got up and went downstairs to give her boys some privacy. When she got to the kitchen she found a pot of coffee and two tired sisters. Looks like they had a sleepless night too. "We really need to talk to Chris today. I have thought of a hundred questions since then. I know he won't be able to tell us everything, but at least there aren't so many big secrets anymore so he can tell us most of it." Phoebe said as Piper sat down.

"Chris is with Wyatt right now. Lets give them a little while. I think yesterday opened up a lot of wounds for him and he needs some time with his brother." Piper told her.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Paige started. At Piper's glare she scrambled to explain. "I mean I know he won't hurt him, but that's a lot of bad memories related to him. It might hurt him more to be around Wyatt right now."

Piper smiled. "You didn't hear what I did. Chris is more committed than ever to save Wyatt and get his loving big brother back. Wyatt is everything to Chris. Always has been apparently."

Her sisters couldn't help but smile at that too. "If anyone can save him Chris can." Phoebe added.

"I sure hope so." came a voice from the doorway.

"Chris. Good morning sweetie." Piper said as she walked over to him and gave him a warm hug. He would never get tired of this. It had been so long since he'd been in his mothers arms. He only hoped that when Wyatt was saved she would still be alive when he went back to the future. That all of them were still alive. He shook that thought off. He wasn't here to make things easier for himself. He was here to save Wyatt. End of story. What he wants doesn't matter.

"Have some coffee and some breakfast then we'll talk." Piper led him to the table.

After breakfast Piper called Leo down so they could talk. "Okay what do you want to know?" Chris asked. "I'll tell you everything I can, but please please understand that there are some things I still can't reveal."

"What kinds of things can't you reveal?"

"The type of being Melly is, who Phoebe and Paige end up marrying, that kind of stuff. Those things need to happen on their own in their own time."

"We can accept that." Leo assured him and looked around daring the sisters to contradict him. They all nodded too though Paige and Phoebe looked a bit disappointed. Apparently they really wanted to know who their soul mates were.

"Okay first question and please don't take this the wrong way, but I would think that you would want to send your sister back instead of you to get her out of that world. Why did you come?" Piper asked him.

"Because this was the harder job. She's lived most of her life in that world. It's all she's ever known. She was only nine when everything changed. Coming back here and seeing her family again and not being able to tell them who she was, dealing with all the distrust and even hate at times coming off of you, seeing a better world that she was never able to have; that would have killed her. She's stronger than me in some ways, but in some ways she is still just a little girl who wants nothing more than to curl up in her mother's arms for eternity. The prophecy plays a part in it too. We explored the option that she was the thrice-blessed of the prophecy since she has part of three beings in her too, but that was discarded for a few reasons. Also I was closer to Wyatt. It is more important to me that he is saved instead of eliminated."

"I am so sorry for how we treated you Chris. That must have hurt you so badly too." Phoebe had tears shining in her eyes.

"Don't worry about it Aunt Phoebe. Any of you. You didn't know and I never intended you to. I knew from the beginning how things would be. I'm not important. Saving Wyatt is. That's the only important thing."

"I agree that saving Wyatt is important, but you are important too. Never doubt that." Leo told him as he placed a hand on Chris' arm.

Chris had to bite back a retort about how he was the one who always told him that but remembered his promise to at least give his father a chance and instead gave him a tentative smile and settled for a more passive comment. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that from you." It got the point across and Leo looked down at the floor, but didn't remove his hand. Chris smiled a little more. Maybe there was a chance.

Suddenly Leo looked up in alarm "Oh my god. I attacked you. I attacked my son. I forced my own son to fight me."

"You may have been a lot of things to me growing up Leo, but you were never abusive. You never hit me so I know that if you had known you wouldn't have attacked me. I don't hold that against you. In fact that was even a relief." Chris chuckled softly. "Helped me work out some of my anger towards you at least."

Everyone looked like they weren't sure whether to be amused or disapproving so settled for something in between. "Tell us about the world there. We saw your memories of Wyatt, but very little about the world as a whole." This is the part Piper was curious about. How much damage was done.

"Well after he killed you three he spent two years in the underworld consolidating power. No one could get close to him. All of the magical beings were targeted. They joined him or died. He made a few more attempts at the kids, but I was able to keep them safe for the most part. There were a few injuries but nothing bad. We all learned very quickly to look over our shoulders at all times. I began to train them all in the martial arts and stealth you taught me Aunt Pheobe and no one ever went anywhere alone or even without someone that could orb. I knew Wyatt would get to magic school so I went and emptied all the libraries and brought everything home. I spent that two years training myself and them, recreating the book of shadows bigger and better than before. I remembered most of the spells and potions from the book since I had been using them most of my life. I was friends with a lot of different magical beings so that part was easy too. I used the libraries I brought home from magic school to create the demon sections. Then once he had a good portion of magical beings and demons on his side he went after the elders and whitelighters. None of the elders survived and only a handful of whitelighters. Then he really began taking over. That's when I started the resistance. All of the family were members even the ten year old twins. They were better trained from those two years than even the older members. Within a year humans were completely extinct. No one from the resistance was ever able to be healed. Demons had free reign of the world. There were always fires burning somewhere. Before I came here I hadn't seen the sky for years for all the smoke and everywhere in the world was the same. Our members were ambushed regularly and we had to get someone into his ranks. Henry volunteered. He was young enough that it would be believable, but old enough to keep his head in a dangerous situation. He was our only chance. We would get warnings of the ambushes and turn them around on Wyatt's people. Even those on his side lived in terror. He would kill them for any slight. The resistance were hounded every time we left the house. The book just kept growing with all the information from everyone and the new spells we were all coming up with. We are losing badly. There isn't much left to save, but we try to do what we can to thwart him. It's bad."

By the time Chris finished his story everyone was sitting there in shock. They didn't think it could possibly be so bad. They really had lived through pure hell. They all cried inside for their children and the horrors they faced. "I have a question and a confession." Phoebe said. "Yesterday after we kicked you out Paige found you in the park and took us there to see you."

Chris interrupted her. "Oh my god. I let me shields fall. Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"I'm fine. I lost consciousness pretty fast, but Paige orbed us out of there right away so no harm done, but my question is, how often did you lose control like that?"

"Not too often. Only after we fought or after I screwed something up big time. I learned a long time ago to keep myself wrapped up. I had too many people counting on me to risk being emotional. This was harder than I thought it would be though."

Piper was shocked at how strong her son was. As he said he had no choice, but it is still hard to imagine. "What did you mean when you said Melinda had more emotional scars from her time with Wyatt?"

"I really don't want to answer that and you really don't want to know."

"I need to know Chris. Please."

Chris sighed and looked down. It still killed him how he failed his baby sister and let her fall into Wyatt's hands. "Well she has the burns like me and a few energy ball scars, but otherwise she's fine physically. The real damage done was a hundred times worse. It is the only time I have ever felt like I really could bring myself to kill him. He called in his demons to rape her repeatedly for days until I could get her out. She was only fourteen. She can never have children now." When Piper broke down in sobs Chris said, "I'm sorry. That's why I didn't want to tell you. I got her out as soon as I could. Honestly I did, but it took time to find her and put together an insertion team."

"Thank you Chris, for saving her. I know you did your best. You have way too much on your shoulders. I'm glad you told me. I need to know this stuff just in case. If we can't save him I don't plan on lying down and dying like I did in your future, but I need to know what I'm fighting for. You're right. Hurting my son would be hard, but to save my other children from that fate I can do anything. This just gives me the ammunition I need to do what I need to do if I need to do it." Piper assured him.

"Why can't we vanquish you?" Paige asked. At the strange looks she was getting she added, "Not that we'd want to of course, but you seemed pretty certain that it wasn't possible and I was just curious why."

"With parts witch, whitelighter, and elder it's not easy to kill me. Darklighter arrows will kill me, but much slower than they would anyone else. Other than that the only thing that can possibly kill me is Wyatt. There is no one else strong enough. Not even the power of three."

"We haven't seen much power from you though." Phoebe reasoned.

"I haven't let you see it. It would be a little too obvious who I was if you saw all of my powers. I was originally planning only to let you see my orbing power, but then it came out that I was half witch so I decided to let you see my telekinesis. That isn't a very rare power so I figured it was safe."

"What other powers do you have?" Piper was curious now.

"Elder bolts, energy balls, levitation, conjuring, illusion, empathy, and mental shielding"

"You got two of Phoebe's powers but none of mine?"

"Yeah kind of funny how that worked out. Wyatt has most of the same powers as me except he doesn't have the elder bolts, conjuring, or the empathy and has healing and a physical shield. Melly has both of your powers Mom and Phoebe's premonition along with her orbing and her powers from her other part. I've been using all my powers when I go undercover in the underworld. I spend as much time undercover as I do just killing demons."

"Why did Wyatt need to bring in a healer for you if he can heal?" Paige asked.

"He can't heal anymore. The more he killed the weaker his healing ability got and now he can't heal at all anymore. It's kind of a tradeoff. I guess he figured it was worth it."

"That actually makes sense" Leo said. "I've heard of rogue whitelighters before that lost the ability to heal."

"What is your birthday? We need to make sure you are conceived." Leo asked Chris.

"I need to be conceived in the two week window starting one month from tomorrow. As gross as it is to think about I had to do the calculations so I could make sure it happened. In the interest of full disclosure I should tell you I was fully prepared to use a lust potion as a last resort."

"You would use a lust potion to conceive yourself?! That's horrible." Phoebe cried.

"I didn't like the idea much either, but I can't risk not being born. If I'm not born then I can't come back and warn you and no one would be able to defeat Wyatt. Coming back to change the future has big risks, but that was one I couldn't take."

"I can understand that, but I am very glad you didn't have to do it. I can guarantee that we would have been pissed about it" Piper told him.

"I know, which is why I would have tried everything else I could first."

"Why couldn't you have just told us?"

"You may not have wanted to have me. You didn't like me very much and you certainly didn't trust me. Leo never did even after I was born. I don't even know if you would have believed me."

"Oh Chris. It wasn't that we didn't like you. We didn't trust you because you kept so many secrets. We were annoyed with you because we didn't understand why you were so focused. You never gave us a chance to decide whether or not to like you because you never let us get to know you. Now that we know you better we can't help but love you, family or not." Piper told him and wrapped him in her arms.

"Chris I have no idea what happened to make me treat you that way. I want to think that I would never treat my son that way, but obviously I did. I don't know why, but I can promise you that I love you and would never do that again. Now that I know what I did wrong I can fix it. Of course I want you. You're my child even if you don't actually exist yet." Leo placed a hand over his and squeezed.

Chris closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep his emotions in check. "I hope so Dad. I really do." Leo's face lit up hearing Chris call him Dad in a normal tone of voice. The only times he had heard it so far was when he was sneering at him.

Phoebe and Paige decided to let Chris have some time with his parents and left them alone. They decided to take Wyatt to the park.

* * *

Over the next week Chris spent a lot of time with his family getting to know them again and they were getting to know him finally. One day they were sitting in the attic going over the book and Chris was showing them which demons he had vanquished since he got there that they didn't know about. All of a sudden the attic wall began to glow in the Halliwell triqueta. "Shit!" Chris cried. He positioned himself in front of his family to protect them in case it was Wyatt coming through. He would not let Wyatt hurt them again.

The charmed ones and Leo all figured out pretty quick who Chris thought was coming through and readied themselves for battle. They were confused when three people fell through the portal all in various states of injury. "No!" Chris cried. "Dad heal them! Please!" Leo ran over and did so.

The girl woke first. "Chris?"

"Melly what are you doing here? Who's leading the resistance?"

Melly started to cry. "This is the resistance Chris. Wyatt broke the enchantments on headquarters. We are the only ones that survived. There's nothing left to save there so we decided to come here and help you. This is our only hope now."

"You three are all that's left? How? What happened?"

"Henry. He betrayed us to Wyatt. He saw that we were losing and decided to bargain for his life. He gave Wyatt all of our secrets and sent him after us. We were able to escape and get into the manor to do the ritual and get back here. I'm sorry Chris. I failed you." She sank into his arms.

"Shh it's okay Mel-bell. You didn't fail me. There was nothing you could have done. You did as much as I would have been able to. I never counted on Henry changing sides. Maybe he was too young when we sent him in. Maybe he was corrupted over time. It's not your fault."

The rest of the family let them have their moment. Then the other two woke up. They had been the cover for Melly to get through so they took the bulk of the damage before they made it through themselves. Chris reached over to help the two guys up. "You guys doing okay?" They nodded and hugged Chris tightly.

Chris turned around to make introductions. "This is Jason, Ethan, and Melly. Guys this is my Mom Piper, Dad Leo, Aunt Phoebe, and Aunt Paige."

"They know?" Melly asked incredulously.

The women looked a little sheepish and Chris cringed. "Yeah they were a little more suspicious than we gave them credit for. They cast a spell to see my memories"

Melly gasped. "Are you okay ki-ki? That couldn't have been easy for you" Chris nodded and she turned to her mother and aunts. "And you! How could you do that to him! I know he told you how bad things were in the future!"

"Melly stop. They were scared that I was lying to hurt Wyatt. They did what they felt they had to do. We've already been over this and we're okay."

She looked at him skeptically but seemed to deflate. "Okay and by the way since when is Leo Dad?"

Leo visibly cringed and looked at the floor. "Since he is a different person in this time and is disgusted with how he treated us in the future. He asked me to give him a chance to make up for it before he even does it and I am. And I have to admit things are going good so far."

"Whatever. It's going to take a little more than that for me. I saw how badly he hurt you Chris, and everything he pushed you to and I won't forgive that easily." She glared at Leo.

"Just give him a chance Melly. He hasn't done anything wrong yet and maybe this time around he won't. Please?"

"I'll try okay? That's the best I can do." She walked over to Leo and held out her hand. "Hello Leo." she said.

Leo took her hand gratefully "Hello Melly. It's wonderful to meet you."

"She looked him up and down. "We'll see." She turned back to Chris. "He looks a little less haunted in this time at least." Then she turned to Piper. "Mom?" Piper held out her arms and Melly rushed into them. "I'm still mad at you for putting Chris through that but I can understand your fear. If you hurt him again though you will answer to me."

"Enough Melly. They were hurt as badly as I was during our little trip down memory lane. Let it go. That's an order." Chris said sternly.

"This is a personal matter. You can't pull rank, but I will let it go. I just want to make sure they understand that I won't allow anyone to hurt you."

Suddenly there was the sound of orbing into the room. Chris sighed. "Great timing buddy." he muttered. "And this is little Wyatt." Jason and Ethan glared at Wyatt like they wanted to kill him. Understandable given the circumstances, but it couldn't be allowed. Chris stepped in front of Wyatt. "The mission is to save him. You lay one hand on him and I will break it. Understood?"

"And if you can't save him?" Ethan asked. "We can't use the original plan to go back to the future and initiate the final battle because there are only two of you left and you need at least three of the Halliwell line to pierce his shield. So what's the plan now boss?"

"That just means that we can't fail here. With all of us now we have a better chance anyway. You will treat him like you would treat any other child and here I can pull rank. He has done nothing wrong yet and if we succeed he never will." They both nodded. "I'm sorry I have to ask for this but I won't take any chances. Not with this. I need the oath from all of you now. Even you Melly." When they nodded he said "okay. The oath should be to protect Wyatt as long as he never intentionally harms an innocent."

They all chanted as one. "By the powers of the wicca I swear to protect Wyatt Matthew Halliwell as long as he never intentionally harms an innocent on penalty of death. So mote it be." A golden thread of magic swirled around them and then was absorbed into their skin.

"What just happened?" Piper asked completely confused.

"That was the wiccan oath. It's an ancient spell that I found in the magic school library. All of my people know it and it is used only with the most crucial of missions."

"What does it do?" Paige asked.

"If they violate the oath they die. In this case if they harm Wyatt in any way or intentionally allow him to be harmed. Now you can be sure they can be trusted." Chris explained.

"Okay now that that's settled we can make arrangements. Do you have any ideas where they can stay Mom?" Chris asked Piper.

"They can stay here if you can add more rooms and get some furniture."

Chris chanted the spell to add three more rooms. "I need a little break before I conjure the furniture. That spell takes a lot of power." He sank onto the couch. Suddenly his head snapped up and he looked to Melly. "The book? Please tell me you brought it"

"Oh yeah I almost forgot. It's here." She pulled out a small book out of her backpack. "You'll have to unshrink it. Prue shrunk it for me when we were escaping and I can't undo it."

Chris waved his hand over the book and it returned to it's normal size. It was easily five times the size of their current book of shadows. "Since we can't go back now we may as well keep it here."

"May I?" Paige asked almost drooling as she looked at the book.

Chris smiled and handed it over to her. She sat down with it and began to look through it. "This is amazing Chris! You did this?"

"Most of it. There have been spells and potions added that the resistance created. Wyatt has the original book though."

"You were even able to add the triquetra." Piper said in awe.

"Any Halliwell can actually."

"Everything in here is cross-referenced, indexed, and put into different sections. It is so much easier to find things in here. Do you think we could use your book?"

"Of course. It's a family book and you are family. Hell everyone in the resistance had access to it and future consequences don't matter as much anymore about that kind of stuff since we can never go back now."

"Ok since we are all here and committed to protecting Wyatt we need to set up watch rotations, alarm signals, danger codes, etc." Ethan said.

The three resistance members clustered around their leader and his family. "Huh?" Phoebe asked.

"That's what we did in the resistance when we were protecting high priority people. We didn't have enough people here for that stuff before but now we do. I'll have to train you guys for it though. This part isn't too hard though and you've already got the kicking ass down pat." he laughed.

"First priority is to set up a shift rotation. We need one person inside the room and one outside at all times. The person inside needs to have an offensive power and the person outside needs to be able to orb to raise the alarm. Or shimmer in Ethan's case."

"Wait Ethan is a demon? I thought you didn't work with demons?" Piper said alarmed.

Chris smiled at her. "Ethan is only half demon. You've actually met him before. He's half manticore half human."

"Wait he's the baby we saved and returned to his father? But you wanted us to vanquish the baby." Phoebe was getting confused here.

"I didn't realize it was Ethan until I saw his father as a human when Dad healed him and I was too afraid to take any chances. If it helps I'm glad you didn't listen to me then."

Ethan laughed "Me too!"

"Anyway, we have eight of us, with two on each shift we can run six hour shifts. Ethan, Jason, Paige, and Leo will be on the alarm shift and myself, Melly, Phoebe, and Piper on the watch shift. Ethan you'll work with Melly, Jason with me, Leo with Piper, and Paige with Phoebe. Us resistance people will take the overnight shifts since the rest of you have jobs and that's when an attack is most likely to be and no offense but we are better trained. We have been doing this most of our lives against stronger and better organized enemies. Piper and Leo can have the morning shift while Phoebe goes to work and Phoebe and Paige will cover the evening shift while Piper works at the club. I'll make a chart with everyone's schedule. As far as the alarm signals and danger codes you four go through my book. Everything has a code word. Usually it's similar to the name to avoid too much confusion. That's how we communicate in a crisis without broadcasting to the enemy what we are doing. If there is an attack and you recognize the demon call out the code word for the demon if you can remember it. If not just call out the name of the demon and the person on the outside will hear you over the monitor, raise the alarm, and if necessary collect the needed materials to vanquish the attacker." Chris sat down and made the schedule chart.

"What if we are somewhere without electricity or out in public. We won't be able to use the baby monitor." Paige asked.

"Look in my book in the household spells section. There is a spell to make things run without electricity. If we are in public the alarm person will be nearby but not actually with Wyatt so as to avoid getting trapped in an attack and being unable to raise the alarm. There is also a spell in the same section to increase the signal power. I usually just used it on my cell phones but it will work for the baby monitor as well. Okay everyone look over the schedule and see if it works for you." Everyone agreed to it easily and the current shift which happened to be Paige and Phoebe got set up. Paige went to get the baby monitor, cast the spell on it, and handed the monitor end to Phoebe who clipped it on her pants and she took the receiver out into the hall while the rest of them went over the book.

"Hey Chris! Paige called from outside the room. Chris went to the door and opened it. "Am I allowed to sit down out here?"

Chris laughed. "As long as you don't fall asleep" And he was even nice enough to conjure a comfy chair for her. "I'll watch for a moment if you want to go get a book or something."

He went back in the room. "Oh yeah and if there is an attack keep up constant chatter over the monitor so we know if you are incapacitated and someone can orb in immediately. Everyone nodded and Paige yelled an affirmative from the hallway.

* * *

Everyone fell into an easy routine with the watch lists. Chris and Melly cherished their alone time at night with their baby big brother. It was just a week later when the system was tested. Chris was sitting next to Wyatt's crib singing a song to the baby when suddenly a demon shimmered in. Chris recognized it immediately as a swarm demon. "Swimming!" he called over the monitor. Jason orbed into Piper's room "Swarm demon!" He called before repeating the process in Melly and Ethan's rooms. At the same time he was doing that Chris called for Leo who orbed immediately into Phoebe's room and then Paige's. Jason, after raising the alarm, orbed into the nursery grabbed Wyatt and orbed out with both Wyatt and Paige. They still had to keep up the watch under attack and either of them could cover any position. It took under thirty seconds for Wyatt's room to be full of all manner of magical beings. Piper blasted the demon as soon as she walked in and blew up and then reformed into two of them. "No Mom! Don't blast them! Freeze them!"

Piper looked confused but did as Chris said. "Okay why are we freezing him instead of killing him?"

"Swarm demons reproduce when you kill them. The only way to kill them is to kill the Swarm King. If this tribe is after Wyatt we have work to do. First we have to figure out where the Swarm King is. We can try to get it out of these guys hence the freezing."

"But then how do we get rid of them if we can't kill them?"

"This is the part I despise since of course I've been on the other end, but we have to torture them and let them escape which they will when they can't take the pain anymore. It's the only way to get rid of them." Chris looked down afraid of what his family would say about the idea of torture, especially of knowing that Chris tortured.

"If that's the only way then we have to protect ourselves and Wyatt." Piper said putting her hand on Chris' shoulder correctly interpreting his look. "Chris you know what you are doing better than we do. Like you said you've had a lot more practice against much harder enemies. We will follow your lead and do what you say here. When it comes to this situation we aren't your parents or your aunts but your subordinates. Don't worry about disappointing us or us disapproving of your methods, okay sweetie? Just do what you need to do."

"Ok mom. Unfreeze one of their heads." When she did Chris turned to the demon. "Where is your king?"

"Do you really think I'll just tell you?" The demon sneered at him.

"No I expect to have to work for the information. Luckily for me I have a lot of experience with your kind so I know the best ways to encourage speech. Melly handed him the potions she'd fetched when the alarm was raised. Chris threw the fire potion at him. It was the same potion Wyatt had used on him to cause his burns, but not quite as strong. After a few moments he threw the antidote. "Ready to tell me now?"

"Never"

Chris shrugged and threw another of the same potion at him. When he again threw the antidote the demon broke and told him exactly how to find the demon king. He nodded to his mother who unfroze both of the demons and they shimmered away immediately. "Ok this demon will require at least the power of three to vanquish and at least two more to keep the others off our tail. Dad you have to stay behind. We may need you for heals after it's over. We can't risk you on this mission. Mom, Aunt Phoebe, and myself will handle the power of three Mel and Ethan run interference. Here is the spell." He handed them the paper that the spell was written on that Mel had also grabbed.

The group orbed into the enemies lair and were set upon by swarms as soon as the materialized. Chris took the hands of his aunt's and began to chant the spell to vanquish the king. Mel and Ethan were having difficulty keeping the swarms occupied by the time the spell was finished and they all exploded. They orbed back to the manor except for Chris who went to the safe house to retrieve Jason and Paige. They all made it back to the manor and Chris addressed them all. "Perfect execution everyone. Great job. Let's hope we don't have to do it again." The three who were very familiar with that speech all began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Piper asked.

"He gives the exact same speech after every successful mission. It's kind of a running joke with us."

Chris then walked over to Wyatt and took him from his mom. "I'll put him back to bed." As he was walking out he could be heard murmuring to his brother. "It's okay Wy. We've got you. We won't let anyone get to you. I promise.

* * *

Next time: Figuring out who the real threat to Wyatt is. Can they stop it in time?


	3. Chapter 3

Memory Lane

Chapter 3:

Mel knocked on her mother's bedroom door. "Mom can I talk to you?"

"Of course. Come in."

"I realized that I haven't apologized for everything I said to you the first day I got here about using the spell on Chris. I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to protect your family from a perceived threat. You only did what any Halliwell would have done in your place. Chris had to remind me of that. I'm just not used to having any other Halliwells around. You know?"

"Family is very important to you isn't it?"

"Of course. Family is everything. We are the guardians of the Halliwell line" She said as she puffed out her chest with pride. "Chris taught us that. He reminded us every day."

"What does that mean to be a guardian of the Halliwell line?"

"We uphold the moral code passed down by our ancestors. Protect the innocents. Protect your family. Do magic for good; never for evil. Don't use magic for personal gain. Fight the good fight to the bitter end. Even though most of us are dead now, they haven't died in vain because they died upholding that code."

"Tell me about your Chris. The Chris I saw in his memories and since you got here is so much different than the one I've seen so far. I want to know my children better, but he is just so closed off. Even now."

"That's not surprising. Here he isn't the leader of the resistance. The last hope for good magic everywhere. The standard that every good being on earth holds themselves to. The one who has to make all the hard choices. Here he is just a normal young man on a desperate mission. He can relax so much more than he ever could at home. Even now with us here he is so much more relaxed and carefree than I've seen him since the event."

"You really admire him don't you?" Her mother asked in awe of just how inspiring her son is.

"You can't help but admire him. Before the event he was a completely different person. He had his insecurities, mostly because of Leo, but he was happy. He and Wyatt were so close they were practically attached at the hip. Chris was always so smart. He was in all of the advanced classes at magic school so he was in the same classes as Wyatt and they did everything together. As far as Chris was concerned the sun rose and set on his big brother. Then Wyatt started disappearing and at first Chris just chalked it up to growing up, getting interested in girls, etc, but one day he followed him and found out he was working in the underworld organizing the demons and setting himself up as ruler. He went to you thinking he was under some kind of spell like Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige were before, but when he killed you Chris realized that it was no spell. Combined with the fact that Leo never came when Chris called. When he could have healed you and saved you. Chris changed. Then when Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige's bodies were sent back to the manor that was the end of the old Chris."

"I wish he could have been a child for a little longer. That all of you could have stayed children for longer."

"So do we, Mom. So do we. Chris took charge. He moved us all to a safe place, but Wyatt still got in. We lost Patricia, but the rest of us were safe. He almost never slept. He spent the first few nights orbing in and out from magic school retrieving the library before Wyatt got it, then he spent his nights creating the Book of Shadows. During the day he taught us how to defend ourselves. He taught us our history, magical theory, martial arts, how to use our gifts, everything you could think of. We were lucky he was such a genius. He absorbed every book he read then passed his knowledge on to us. By the time the Elders fell we were such a cohesive unit we could almost read each others minds. When the resistance was formed he was obviously the leader and he was such a good strong leader. He never showed emotion. He did what needed to be done. He worked tirelessly for the cause. I don't think he's gotten more than three hours of sleep a night since the event."

"My baby has barely slept in over eight years!? That's horrible!"

"Well he was always too busy and combined with the nightmares it wasn't easy for him to sleep at all. The torture you saw when Wyatt captured him, that was only the first time. There were many others. It took us a week to get him out that time before I finally took matters into my own hands. Henry was already inserted as a spy and he was there for the torture. When word got out among the troops how bad it was and still Chris wouldn't give Wyatt the satisfaction of hearing him scream Chris became like a god to them. It was hard for him though. He couldn't afford to second guess his decisions and so many of his decisions had to be made in the heat of the moment on the battlefield. He had to make the hard choices. Had to choose who lived and who died."

"What do you mean who lived and who died?" Piper asked aghast.

Every battle he had to organize. He decided who was on the front lines with the least chance of survival and who was more protected in back. He hated it, but he knew that there would be casualties even though he tried to limit them as much as possible. Above all the guardians were the most important. We needed all the power we could get to fight Wyatt and the Halliwell line has the most power and the more of us that are working together the stronger the power. No one questioned the need to keep the guardians alive at all costs. No one except him. He worried that he was placing the needs of his family over the needs of his troops. Only the guardians ever saw his doubts. His fears. To everyone else he was their hero. The one they aspired to be. He could never let his mask down. He is a hero. The closest thing to a real hero this world has ever seen and we would all do anything in this world for him."

"He kept his mask up even here." Piper told her daughter.

"I'm sure he did. I can't imagine how hard it was to come here and see all of you again and have you not know who he was. He knew you wouldn't trust him, wouldn't like him, wouldn't want him in your lives. He knew that before he left, but he also knew it had to be done. It was probably harder than anything he has ever been through, but he persevered just like he always does. I wouldn't have had the strength. I would have fallen apart a long time ago in his position." Mel said near tears.

"I feel so horrible for how we all treated him before. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself. I don't know how Chris did so easily."

"You did what you thought you had to do to protect your family. Family above all else remember. That was the first thing we ever learned. The code Chris lived by and instilled in all of us. He would never blame you for that, no matter what. Trust me Mom. And forgive yourself."

Piper patted Mel's knee. "It's not that easy sweetie, but I promise I'll try."

"How is it that he seems so emotionless when he feels so much?"

"Chris has always felt emotions strongly, but Wyatt would always use our emotions against us so he learned along with the rest of us how to put on that emotionless mask. He's the best at it, but it's become so ingrained into him that he does it without even realizing most of the time."

"He said he could kill Phoebe with the strength of his emotions."

"That's true. He always had to take blocking potions on a regular basis when he was younger before he learned how to control his mental shield. He actually knocked her out a few times when he was little. After the event it got worse. He almost killed an empath when he accidentally let his shield drop. He felt so guilty, but he couldn't help it."

"Why are his emotions so strong?"

"I have a theory on that actually. Wyatt is extremely powerful, but other than that he isn't so remarkable. I think the fates realized that was a mistake and that Wyatt could go either way, good or evil, so they created Chris. In addition to his exceptional power, Chris also has exceptional brains, courage, and heart. He has the strength to persevere no matter the situation and feels things so deeply that he could never be evil even if he wanted to. He is the most selfless person I've ever known. I think Chris was created to either create a good world alongside Wyatt or battle Wyatt whichever may be needed."

"He sounds so remarkable. But don't you feel left out? I mean both of your brothers are like ultimate powers in the universe."

"I'm pretty powerful myself. I mean sure I'm not anywhere near their level, but I'm about as powerful as the power of three. I don't envy either of them. It's like the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. I don't want that responsibility. I'm much happier having a loving family and two all powerful brothers to bail me out if I get in over my head." She laughed. Her face turned somber. "At least I used to have two. Now I have one trying to save me and one trying to kill me. I just hope I have them both again when we succeed here."

"You will sweetie. Don't worry."

* * *

The next morning Leo orbed in with an idea. "Get everyone together we need to talk."

Once everyone was gathered together Leo began to speak. "I know that we are doing well here and all, but I have talked to the elders. I think we should move into magic school for the time being. We can still leave for research and vanquishes, but magic school is completely protected. If nothing else it will keep Wyatt safe in the meantime."

"I think that's a good idea, but we will still keep up our watches just in case. There is a possibility that it wasn't a demon that turned him. That is the most likely so that's the one that we have been working off of, but there is still a chance that it was something else, and until we know we don't let our guard down." Chris said daring anyone to disagree with him.

"I don't think that's necessary, but if you think so then we will do it." Leo told his son.

Chris was thrown. He wasn't used to his father showing any interest in what he had to say. He had never trusted Chris' judgment before. He quickly threw his mask back up before anyone saw his shock. "We'll leave tonight." Piper said. Nothing was more important to her than protecting her children and this way they would all be safe. At least while in magic school.

To begin with only Piper, Leo, and Wyatt went along with Jason and Chris who were on the watch shift. Gideon met them as they arrived and led them to the guest rooms. When Chris went in with Wyatt and Jason stayed outside the door Gideon looked at them strangely. "Don't you boys want to see your rooms?" He asked Jason.

"Nope. We're on duty. When the next shift relieves us we will see them." Jason answered.

"He's safe here. You don't have to watch him." Gideon assured the boy.

"Sorry Gideon. Orders. You know. We aren't to leave him alone at any time."

"Who's orders? Surely even they would have to admit that it is perfectly safe here. There is no need to trouble yourselves. You need sleep too." Gideon was hoping that the boy would fall for it. It would be much more difficult to get his hands on the child with guards around.

Jason pointed to Chris. "His orders."

Gideon went to Chris to try to convince him. "Sorry Gideon. I'm taking no chances whatsoever. We're not even positive it was a demon that turned him so until the threat is eliminated he will be guarded at all times."

Gideon decided to try a different tact. "I suppose that is a good idea. I wouldn't mind taking a shift from time to time either." If he could get on a shift maybe he could sneak the boy away.

Chris looked at Gideon suspiciously. Gideon was staring at Wyatt in a way that made Chris very uncomfortable. "We're good for now, but if we need someone to fill in I'll let you know."

Gideon figured he'd pushed his luck for the day and wished them good night and left. Chris sat down and got lost in his thoughts. When Mel came to relieve him he pulled her aside for a talk. "Mel. I don't like the way Gideon was looking at Wyatt earlier. It's probably nothing but my paranoia, but when you meet him tomorrow try to get a premonition off of him just to make sure." She nodded and Chris left.

* * *

The next morning the entire group was hanging out in the library when Gideon came in. Mel saw her chance. She walked over to Gideon and held out her hand. "I'm Mel. You must be Gideon. Nice to meet you." He took her hand pleasantly and she tensed up. Chris of course never told anyone about his suspicions of Gideon, mostly because he was sure they were unfounded. I mean the man is an elder for crying out loud, but he couldn't afford to leave one stone unturned. Suddenly Mel cried out "Crystal Cage!" and it surrounded Gideon.

"What do you think you are doing young lady?!" Gideon cried. "I am an elder. You can't get away with this."

"Oh so it's commonplace for elder's to conspire against innocent babies?" Mel asked him with a sneer.

Chris was shocked, but he had to take over. "I got it from here Mel. Jason take Wyatt to the safe house. Don't come out until someone comes for you." He leaned closer to Jason. "If things go bad here and we don't make it, you are the last hope for the world. Take care of him." Jason, tears in his eyes, nodded and teleported away. "Mel project you premonition please so we all know what's going on here."

In the premonition, Gideon kidnapped Wyatt and took him to the underworld where they couldn't be sensed. He tried day after day for a month to kill him, but couldn't penetrate Wyatt's shield. After a month he began calling in demons to try. Wyatt wasn't found and rescued for four and a half months and by then he was completely traumatized. "So let me try to understand this," Chris sneered at Gideon. "His power frightens you so you decide to kill an innocent child. You didn't count on the fact that you couldn't get through his shield though and ended up traumatizing him so much he turned evil. Great job. You create the monster you tried to destroy."

"It was for the greater good. He is too powerful to live!" Gideon cried hoping that someone could understand that.

"Let me tell you something Gideon. I am much more powerful than he is and I am fully trained. I could kill you on the spot, but I haven't decided if I will yet. First I need to know if the other elders were in on this too. If not I will let them have first crack at you."

"They weren't in on it. They didn't know." Gideon said hoping against hope that the boy would keep his word and let the other elders handle it.

Chris used his empathic power to read if he was lying. "Ok so the elders aren't in on it with you, but someone is. Who?"

Gideon stayed silent. "WHO!?" Chris bellowed. No one had ever seen a display like this. The entire room began to shake, windows shattered, and Chris almost glowed from the power radiating off of him. Gideon was completely speachless. This boy wasn't lying when he said he was more powerful than the twice-blessed. Maybe if he answered his life would be spared and he could just wait until they drop their guard.

"Sigmund. He's the only other one who knew."

Chris nodded. "He's telling the truth. Ethan get Sigmund here." Ethan shimmered out after the doomed witch. "Leo, go see the other elders. Get them down here to deal with them. As long as their punishment is fair I will allow them to deal with their own."

Leo was surprised at that. He was sure that his children would want to pay back the elder for the life of hell they had lived. Of course anyone could tell how kind and selfless Chris is. Before Leo could orb out however the room was filled with Elders. Everyone jumped up startled. "We're sorry to startle you, but as soon as we felt one of our own become trapped we turned all attention to the scene to see what was going on. You all have our apologies. We had no idea what Gideon was planning and would never have supported it had we known. There are those of us who believe any being with that kind of power and lacking anything else remarkable is dangerous, but we would never imagine stepping in until evil was done, much less killing a child who has done no wrong yet."

About that time Ethan returned with Sigmund. Chris turned to Sigmund and asked. "You were allied with Gideon for the purpose of killing Wyatt Halliwell?"

"I didn't want to. I didn't think it was a good idea, but he was an elder. He said it was the only way. He told me it had to be done and he needed my help. I'm sorry."

The elders looked to Chris realizing that he was empathic. "Is he telling the truth?" They asked him. Chris nodded. "Very well. We will think of a suitable punishment for you later Sigmund, but we will be lenient given the circumstances." They looked to Chris hoping he wouldn't disagree with them. They had seen his display of power and while anyone could tell he was good to the core, they still didn't want him opposed to them.

"If I may make a suggestion honored elders?" Chris asked with a slight bow. The head elder nodded to him giving him permission to speak. "I would suggest that Sigmund's only punishment be to leave magic school. We don't want someone impressionable enough to go along with this type of plan teaching our children. His only crime is being too trusting and we wouldn't want to risk our children being corrupted as a result of it."

The elders agreed. "Now on to Gideon. What you have done is a violation of all that we as elders and the upholders of good hold dear. We have no choice but to recycle you. Send your soul back to continue the cycle of life once more."

The elder raised his arm to carry out the punishment, but Chris called out for them to wait. Chris walked up to Gideon and punched him in the nose. Gideon staggered backwards, blood streaming down his face. "That's for my brother you bastard." He turned back to the elders. "Carry on" He smirked. Most of the elders looked at him disapprovingly, but some of them hid snickers.

As soon as Gideon disappeared Chris, Mel, Ethan, and unbeknonst to the others Jason who was still at the safehouse, fell to the ground screaming in agony and began flickering in and out of existence. After a few moments they were solid again and panting after the ordeal. Everyone looked to the elders for an explanation. "We can't be sure, but we believe the time-line has gone through a drastic alteration and since they are from the old time-line they had to readjust themselves to this one. This is unprecedented though so I can't be sure, but that seems like the best conclusion I can come up with." They all shrugged almost as one. "Now on to other business. While we abhor Gideon's methods, we have to admit that his concerns were valid, especially considering what these young people traveled through time to stop. What steps will you be taking to ensure the twice-blessed child's morality?"

Leo answered that one. "Well our other children turned out great so it was obviously an outside influence that turned him. We will simply take steps to keep him safe until his morality is completely developed. In fact, if Gideon hadn't been so trusted he would never have gotten close either. And worst case-scenario, now that we know what to watch for we can prevent it sooner if history seems to be repeating itself."

"If he has to be vanquished at some point who could do it? If that premonition was correct even an elder cannot break through his shield."

The family and remaining resistance members looked to Chris as if asking permission. Chris sighed. "I will be born in less than a year. I am the thrice-blessed, the only one who could possibly take him on and am incapable of evil. I won't let the world become what it was again. If I have to stop him I will. When I return to the future someone must tell my younger self of this though if the situation arises, but only if necessary. I shouldn't know that my destiny may be to kill my brother unless I have to."

Mel then told the elders the theory she had that she told her mother about how Chris was created to balance Wyatt. The elders nodded in acceptance. "When do you plan to return to the future and are you sure you can?"

"I'm not sure if I can or not since it's not my future anymore, but with your permission we will wait until I am about to be born before trying. There were other mistakes made in our future that we would like to attempt to avoid if possible, since our future no longer exists anyway." Chris told them hopefully. In reality, while what he said was true, he mostly just wanted to spend more time with his family, not knowing if they would be alive when he returned to his time.

The elders clustered together to discuss things for a moment. "That is acceptable, but understand that any consequences of this are your own doing. We don't believe that it will do any irreparable harm, but it may cause changes that you don't like. As long as you are prepared for that, you may do as you will." When Chris nodded the head elder continued to speak. "As a reward for averting a major catastrophe and showing commendable courage and incorruptibility we would like to give out some gifts. Chris, you will now have the power of healing, both in this body and when you are born in this time-line. Melinda, you will gain the power of astral projection. The Halliwell line has been without it since Prudence. Ethan, your demon heritage is now erased, though you will still keep your powers and are now a witch. Jason will be gifted with the offensive power of telekinesis in addition to his defensive powers. Leo and Piper, your gift is the best of all. You will have the choice to become a whitelighter again with your family as your only charges with the option of becoming an elder again at any time."

Chris interrupted the elders here. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but if he accepts this gift you will need to wait until I am conceived to grant it. My thrice blessed comes from Elder, whitelighter, and witch so he has to be an elder when I am conceived if I am to be powerful enough in the future."

"Very well. If that is your choice Leo, we will grant it once your second son is conceived." Leo agreed with tears in his eyes. He had never been so happy. Even when he was a whitelighter before, he was forced to have charges all over the world and still never had enough time for his family. Now his job would be to care for his family. The elders were right this is the best gift of all.

"Paige, your gift will be the power of conjuring, and Phoebe will gain the power of illusion. We thank you all again for averting disaster and helping us to thin out one of our own." With that the elders all orbed away.

"Wow. Who would've thought they would give us all gifts like that." Melly said in awe.

"I know right? I know some of them probably had an ulterior motive though." Chris said.

"Like what?" Piper asked.

"Well letting Leo stay with his family was probably because they figured with both parents around it would be easier to keep Wyatt in line, plus the fact that they realized that they wouldn't be able to keep you apart anyway since you end up having two more kids and wanted to do it on their terms. My healing ability was probably because good or not, I could be a threat to them if I thought they were corrupt. Ethan was probably to align him more on the side of good since technically he is part demon. Maybe they just felt bad for Jason since all he has is defensive powers and they realized he could do a lot of good if he could just fight back. The rest were probably because they just didn't want anyone to feel left out." He shrugged as if to say who knows.

The four resistance members stayed in the manor for the next ten months. They continued vanquishing as many demons as they could manage, but they did take breaks. They also kept up the watches on Wyatt, just to be on the safe side, but they were a bit more relaxed about it. A week before Chris' birthday the foursome was all set to go back to the happier future they hopefully created. Just as they finished drawing the triquetta on the wall, however, a man stepped out of it. "Wait! You can't go through!" He said.

Everyone gasped. "Wyatt!" They yelled and took defensive stances. Then they really looked at him. His hair was short and he was wearing lighter colors and the cold, deadened look in his eyes was now happy and bright. They succeeded. As soon as that registered Chris launched himself into his brothers arms crying. Wyatt held him just as tightly with tears running down his face as well. "I missed you so much Chris. And you too Melly." He said as she fell into his arms as well. After a few moments the three siblings pulled apart.

"Okay question one why can't we go through? Question two, are we dead or something?"

"The answer to both questions is the same story. Your theories on time travel were wrong. You can't rejoin the time-line with your adult selves or both of you die. From my perspective you all came back three years ago and we've all spent the time since then researching trying to find out if anyone would be able to come back here and warn you and figuring out why it happened. We all knew that with your neurotic tendencies you wouldn't accept anything but a perfect answer and since we had time we found it for you." Suddenly Wyatt began to flicker in and out of existence screaming in agony just like the others had when Gideon was killed.

"Okay what was that?" Jason asked.

"That was the time-line changing. See when you all did that in magic school you readjusted to this time-line. Since your old one no longer existed you became stuck in this point in time and you have to live your lives from here onward. And now so do I. That's what the prophecy meant Chris when it said 'lost in time'. Before you weren't really lost, because you could travel back and forth. Now you are stuck in a time not your own making the prophecy true."

"I'm so sorry Wy. If only I had known how wrong I was you wouldn't have had to come back and strand yourself here too." Chris looked down at his shoes.

"Don't worry about it Chris. You couldn't have known. It took all of us working together three years to figure out this information with access to the best magical sources in the world. From what I've heard you had a lot of people working on it, but very little access to outside sources. Besides I volunteered to come back. After everything you sacrificed for me, I wanted you to have a chance to see the outcome. To see that you achieved everything you fought so hard for. That and I would rather live in this time with you two than another time without you." Wyatt smiled. "Here are some books that we wrote about the effects of time travel. Mom, Dad, and the Aunts began researching just after you left actually. You inspired them apparently" He laughed.

Chris took the books and glanced at the covers. There were books by Leo and Piper Halliwell, A few by 'The Charmed Ones', Two by Prudence, Patricia, and Penelope Halliwell. And three by Henry and Sarah Halliwell. The most were by Wyatt Halliwell though. When Chris pointed this out Wyatt just shrugged. "I was super motivated. I wanted my brother and sister back." He said with tears in his eyes.

At that Piper couldn't hold herself back anymore "Oh my baby!" She cried as she ran forward and hugged him. "I can't believe how great all of my kids turned out. First Chris and Mel come back in time to save Wyatt and create a new time-line, then the new Wyatt comes back in time to save Chris and Mel. I'm so glad you three love each other so much."

"Yeah and now you have three adult children to help with the three child children" Paige said chuckling, "If that even makes sense."

"Not really, but we know what you meant. And by the way I call some of that help when I have kids too." Phoebe called out.

Everyone laughed. There was a feeling of hope and happiness in the air. "Chris you're projecting again" Melly told him. "We can feel our own thanks." That just made everyone laugh harder and Chris apologized sheepishly.

Mel just beamed and whispered to her mother low enough that no one else could hear her, "That's the first time he's let his guard down enough to project since you know what." At that Piper beamed as well. It seems her kids were finally going to have a chance to be happy.

Then Piper got a thought and started fanning herself and sat down. "What's wrong mom?" Chris asked concerned.

"Well I have all three of you and then your three younger selves when they come along...I will have six children!" No one was sure whether to laugh or not. On the one hand it was funny, but on the other hand no one wanted to be on the receiving end of Piper Halliwell in shock. "And what about names! This can get confusing."

The three children from the future looked at each other. "Well you could always switch the first and middle names on our younger selves and young Wyatt can just be called by his middle name. I would say the other way around, but we are kind of used to our names by now. They won't be so much" Chris shrugged. Everyone agreed without too much trouble though little Wyatt was confused for a while about why they were all calling him Matt all of a sudden. He got used to it fairly quickly though as all kids do.

"Oh yeah and one other thing I should probably tell you. We are all individuals in our own right now whether we are officially conceived here or not. If we are then we will come out the same, but if not, we won't cease to exist or anything. And also Mel, I know that you are partly some type of being that was never disclosed, but in my time-line you are half whitelighter and half witch just like me, but you are still the same person so don't worry." Wyatt explained.

"Well can you tell us what kind of being you are now? Since it obviously changed anyway." Piper asked totally curious.

"I'm part Avatar. You won't meet them for a few years, but in my time-line Leo was disillusioned with the elders and became an avatar and the avatars created a utopia on earth. Unfortunately the price was a little too high and you all undid it. Just remember that if they try to get you to accept that option again." Melly told them.

"What kind of price would be too high for utopia?" Phoebe asked incredulously.

"The loss of free will and the erasure of the existence of anyone who creates conflict." Chris said.

"Oh. Yeah. That would do it." Phoebe looked like she had been properly put in her place.

* * *

A/N: Should be only the epilogue left unless the story runs away from me again. If anyone has any requests for the epilogue just hit the review button and let me know.


	4. Chapter 4 and Epilogue

Memory Lane

Chapter 4:

Just as the group of people were getting ready to go to bed a woman appeared in the attic. Everyone took defensive stances at the same time. "Who are you?" Piper asked coldly.

"That's Destiny" Chris said. Everyone looked at him strangely. "What? Who do you think told me that my future wasn't supposed to happen?"

"I interfered? I would never" Destiny said haughtily.

"Yeah well the end of the world tends to make us do things we wouldn't normally do. You realize you never lose that attitude though right?" Chris said with a smirk.

"Anyway, why are you here?" Piper asked curiously. "Aren't you interfering now?"

"Not interfering, just venting. You know I've heard from death, fate, elders, pretty much every higher power in the universe how infuriating you Halliwells are but I never imagined for a moment that you could ever bother me. Now I know how wrong I was. Do you realize that because of you people I now have to rewrite every single destiny in the world? I mean honestly, having three charmed offspring stuck in a different time did you really think that wouldn't make much of a difference?"

"So what? You came here just to yell at us?" Wyatt asked incredulously.

"Exactly. Death said it might help and you know what? He was right. I do feel better." She said as she disappeared.

Chris snorted. "She can say what she wants about not interfering but that was an interference if ever I've seen one."

"How was that an interference? She didn't even tell us anything." Piper asked confused.

"She told us everything. Apparently we are going to do something big that changes the destiny of the entire world, and we are going to do it fairly soon or it wouldn't matter that we were in the wrong time or our younger selves could do it. Also it was apparently a good thing because she was smiling slightly when she said it. As someone who has met her before I can tell you she never smiles." Chris said smugly.

"How do you do that?" Paige asked.

Wyatt smiled. "That's my little brother. Mr super everything genius." He said as he put Chris into a headlock. Chris froze for a moment and fought his instinct to attack and Wyatt let go and stepped back. "Sorry Chris. I forgot for a minute that you came from a future where I was evil and tortured you. You sounded just like my little brother there." He looked a little sheepish.

Chris looked at him and suddenly let out a very malicious looking smirk and tackled Wyatt laughing. They wrestled on the floor for a few minutes while Piper looked on with tears in her eyes, happy that Wyatt was good and Chris was finally at peace. Then suddenly Chris doubled over in pain. Wyatt jumped back. "What happened? You okay?"

"Fine. Fine. Not your fault. Just happened to hit one of my not so healed wounds."

"I'm so sorry. You want me to try and heal it for you?" Wyatt asked

Chris debated with himself for a moment. On one hand having all of his scars healed by Wyatt would be the best possible way to get rid of them. As much a reminder of the success of his mission as the scars themselves were a reminder of the need for it. On the other hand what if Wyatt felt guilty for everything his alter ego did. He looked back at Wyatt and saw that he already felt guilty for everything but would seeing it make him feel more guilty or healing it make him feel better? He looked to his mom for guidance and she could see his dilemma. She could tell how much both of her sons needed this and nodded at Chris. Chris turned back to Wyatt. "You can heal me, but first I have to tell you that none of this is your fault. You are not the Wyatt that I knew and I know that you would never consider doing something like this okay? So don't you dare feel guilty."

Wyatt looked at his brother strangely. How could he not blame him? If just one thing in his life had gone differently it would have been him that did all those things. That was something that weighed on him his entire life. He had never told his family, but from the first story they told of 'the other Chris' he always felt like he had to be extra careful and work extra hard to be good. Oh sure they left plenty of things out. In fact they never told him anything beyond that his brother had come back in time to save him from becoming evil. That was enough. He couldn't imagine what he could possibly have done to his brother to make him so nervous about showing him. "It could have been me though. If you hadn't come back here."

"But it's not. You're a completely different person. I know I just met you, but I can tell already just by your eyes." Chris assured him.

"By my eyes?" Wyatt asked.

"My Wyatt's eyes were always so cold and unfeeling. They stayed that dark blue that they used to only get when he was angry all the time. You could never see any emotion there." Chris smirked lightly. "You, I can read like a book." Wyatt stuck his tongue out at his brother. "Seriously though Wy. That can't be you anymore. The only reason it was before is because you were young enough to be susceptible. Your morality wasn't fully set in yet. There is no chance of you becoming him anymore."

Wyatt sighed in relief at Chris' explanation. "Okay okay I get it. Now lets get on with the healing." Chris gulped audibly as he reached up to remove the glamor. As soon as it dropped Wyatt gasped. He reached his hands out shakily and healed his brother as the tears fell from his eyes. As soon as the healing glow was gone, Chris looked normal again and Wyatt crushed him in a hug. "I can't imagine ever going through something like that. You are so strong. After everything I did to you, you still risked everything even your life to come back and save me. Thank you Chris. I don't think I ever realized the depth of your sacrifice until this moment." He said still in tears.

Chris got tears in his eyes as well. "You're my brother Wy. I'd risk anything for you. It wasn't totally selfless though. I just wanted my brother back."

"Well you've got me now and I'm not going anywhere. I love you so much Chris."

"I love you too Wy. I've been waiting for this moment for eight years. Thank you for being the one to come back after us."

Wyatt reached up his arm and wiped his face as he finally stepped back from Chris. "Okay enough of the mushy stuff" he said with a slight laugh. He looked to the other three people from the other future. "Anyone else need healing from what the bastard alternate me did?"

All three of them looked to Chris who nodded. He could tell how much better it made Wyatt feel to undo some of the damage his other self created. Mel went first. She looked to Chris hesitantly and he dropped her glamor. "My baby sister too? How could he do this?" Wyatt asked shakily as he healed her. "Thank you." He whispered. "You risked everything to save me too. I can never repay you for that. Any of you." He said as he looked around to the others from that future.

"Don't look at me. I was perfectly willing to come back here and kill you before you could do it." Jason shrugged.

"Jason!" Chris cried.

"It's okay Chris." Wyatt laughed. "I don't blame them a bit. I wouldn't even have blamed you. Hell if anything else happens to mini-me and I'm headed down the same path I'll kill me myself." Wyatt paused a moment. "Wait. I think I confused myself. Did that make sense?"

Everyone burst out laughing. Chris almost rolling on the floor. "Yep that's my big brother alright."

Wyatt threw a pillow at him and Chris stuck his tongue out. Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Real mature" He said laughing.

At some point during all this, unnoticed by everyone else, the charmed ones and Leo slipped out giving the war torn survivors and the one who was almost responsible some time to bond and heal. They could talk to their children tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning Piper woke up early and found all of the resistance members in the kitchen making coffee except for Chris. "You want me to start some breakfast?" She asked them.

"Well we were waiting for Chris, but you'll do" Mel laughed.

"Where is Chris?" she asked.

"He's still sleeping." She smiled wide. Piper couldn't help but smile at that too. She remembered that he hadn't slept more than a few hours since 'the event' as he called it. She was glad he was really healing.

Wyatt came down a bit later yawning. "I checked your room this morning and you weren't there. Where'd you go?" Piper asked her oldest son.

He smiled kinda sheepishly. "I heard Chris having nightmares so I went in to help. Me being there settled him down so I just slept there. Sorry if I worried you."

Piper went to him and wrapped him in a big hug. "You're not still feeling guilty about everything the other Wyatt did are you?"

"Not really. It's more that I owe Chris for saving me. That and I miss my little brother. He's been dead for years in my future and I could barely go on afterwards. It was only the thought of coming back here to save him that kept me going most days."

Piper thought to herself for a moment. "Maybe you boys would like to share a room for a little while?"

"I'd love that if Chris is up for it. Just for a while though. We'd drive each other crazy after too long." he laughed.

Chris woke up late and a little disoriented. He walked into the kitchen to find it full and his mother cooking enough food for an army. "You should have woken me up. I would have helped cook." He told her.

"You can cook?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I would say of course I could with you for a mom, but I'm the only one of your kids that inherited your cooking skills. The rest can't do much more than burn toast so I guess it's not so much of a given. I love to cook though. It's so relaxing." He told her.

She smiled brightly at him. "I'll have to take you up on that in the future. With so many people living here we might just have to open a restaurant in the kitchen." She joked.

"Don't worry Jason and I will be out of here soon and then you won't have quite so many." Ethan laughed.

"Nonsense" Piper said. "You two helped to save Wyatt also and are very close to Chris. As far as I'm concerned you're family too. Now that we can expand the manor we have more than enough room for everyone."

"So Mom. How are you planning to explain suddenly having five more adults in the house three of which call you mom?" Chris asked.

"Well we learned in my future that half whitelighters don't age past twenty so we could probably pass for adopted teenagers or something" Wyatt suggested.

"Wait halfwhitelighters don't age?" Paige asked suddenly waking up completely. "No wonder I still look so young and beautiful." She said lightly.

"Oh that is totally not fair" Phoebe groused.

"Don't worry Aunt Phoebes. You age pretty well yourself." Chris said smiling at her.

"Gee that makes me feel so much better." She said sullenly. "Why didn't you ever tell us that?" She asked Chris.

"We never figured it out. This family had the only half whitelighters and you all died so young that we still just figured on Aunt Paige just aging well. We didn't have any other half whitelighters to compare it to." Chris shrugged.

Just about then Leo orbed in. "Where were you?" Piper asked. "I woke up this morning and you were gone." Everyone turned to look at Piper and Leo with shocked looks on their faces. "What? We obviously get back together sometime soon. Why wait?" She turned back to the stove embarrased.

"I was with the elders. I may be going back to being a whitelighter soon, but while I'm an elder I still have to put in a bit of work from time to time. We were working out some of the details of my deal and the new rules for whitelighters. Speaking of you should have a surprise here shortly."

"What kind of surprise?" Paige asked.

"You'll see in a minute." Leo said smiling. Then he looked up. "Any time now is good" He said impatiently. Suddenly Prue orbed in and found herself buried underneath Piper and Phoebe. Chris, Wyatt, and Mel just smiled.

Piper turned to her children. "You knew she was a whitelighter?" She asked accusingly.

"She helped us for a little while in the resistance." Chris told her. "I didn't want to say anything in case she couldn't come yet."

"I missed you guys so much." Prue told her sisters. Then she turned to Paige. "What no hug for your big sister?" Paige smiled and stepped hesitantly into a hug. "I couldn't have picked a better witch to take my place in the power of three."

"I always felt like I had to live up to you." Paige said sheepishly.

"You may have replaced me as far as the power of three is concerned, but you're not me and you didn't need to take my place as far as the family goes. You have a place all your own there and it's no better or worse than mine." Prue told her.

"So are you our whitelighter now too or are you just here for a visit?" Phoebe asked excitedly.

"Technically my charges are Jason and Ethan, since Leo is your whitelighter, but since they are staying here I get to also. Provided of course you don't mind making me a room?" She informed her family.

The three sisters squealed in excitement.

Leo answered. "We still need to figure out what big thing we do that changes destiny so completely and do it."

Chris looked at the ground sheepishly. "I think I know what it is." Everyone looked at him expectantly so he continued. "I did a lot of thinking last night about just what we could possibly change to make things better enough for Destiny herself to smile and there is only one thing I could come up with. See Wyatt and I are the ultimate powers of the universe. The prophecy said that together we could remake the world. Between the two of us, the power of three, Leo's elder powers and Mel's pretty awesome power we could probably take out every demon in the underworld in one strike. Halliwells are strongest together after all."

"We could do that?" Piper asked amazed.

"Oh yeah. Very easily. Wyatt and I could probably do it ourselves, but it might take more than one strike and take a lot more out of us. With the extra boost it should be cake."

"Well lets go then!" Paige said suddenly excited. "Can you imagine? No more demons!"

"Well there would still be the demons that live on the surface, witches that go evil, and so on, but you're right. There wouldn't really be many more problems. We could almost retire. And I'm sure after wiping out the underworld they will stay in hiding. It's not likely that evil will ever get enough of a foothold to cause trouble again." Wyatt said.

* * *

Epilogue:

After wiping out the underworld the Halliwell family didn't have any problems with demons again. Piper and Leo had twin girls after Melinda; Helena and Grace. Chris was the only one part elder though since Leo took the deal from the elders and became a whitelighter again. He watched over his descendants forever. The Halliwells were ever after seen as the leaders of the magical world and their descendants numbered in the hundreds in just a few generations and continued to expand after that.

Before he gave up being an elder Leo convinced them to bring Cole back to life as a witch. That way he could never be possessed or taken over by evil. He could only turn evil of his own volition, which he knew Cole would never do. He knew that Phoebe had never gotten over Cole and just needed assurance that he could be trusted. Phoebe and Cole were married soon after that and had their three daughters Prudence, Penelope, and Patricia.

Paige met an FBI agent attempting to stop the avatars which they did successfully since the world was already as perfect as they wanted it. The FBI agent Kyle was killed in the process though, but became a whitelighter. With the new rule saying that they could have families he was able to return to Paige and they were married and had the twins Henry and Susan as well as another daughter, Hannah.

All of the children in the house except for the three time travelers grew up calling Jason and Ethan their uncles and they were truly part of the family.

Prue never ended up marrying and helped Leo to watch over the whole family as they kept expanding. The entire family remained in the manor which was now the size of a small town. Once the grandchildren started being born though they moved to the underworld, renovated it to make it more bright and cheery and turned it into a whole city. Of course they still spent a lot of time in the human world since they created an enchanted doorway into the underworld through the basement of the manor. While most of the people marrying into the family were magical creatures of some sort, there were a few mortals. Wyatt married a wood nymph, Chris married Bianca, a phoenix, Melinda ended up marrying Ethan. One of Melinda and Ethan's daughters married a leprechaun. Within a few generations almost every type of magical creature had married into the Halliwell line; even one of the larger races of fairies, an ogre, a Valkyrie, and believe it or not one of the remaining demons that lived in the human world. There is the occasional good demon after all.

They still had their battles. Every so often one of the remaining demons would try their luck against the charmed ones, and of course there were some demons who couldn't stand living in this new world thus committed suicide purposely by going against them. With the next generation by their side there wasn't a demon that exists that was a threat to them.

* * *

A/N Well this is the end. Hope you all enjoyed the ride. Leave me some feedback and let me know what you think. I know this chapter is very fluffy, but I was in a very fluffy mood today.


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